


Second Movement

by lindoreda



Series: Duet for Piano and Sitar [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Kingdom Hearts 3 spoilers, M/M, Mostly Canon Compliant, Music, post kh3, very light shipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 13:11:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17663288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lindoreda/pseuds/lindoreda
Summary: Ienzo's piano is ten years out of tune. He knows this. But he's never been very good at expressing himself any other way.





	Second Movement

**Author's Note:**

> I finished KH3 yesterday, and knew that the time had come to write a quick sequel to Strings and Percussion, despite my nearly two year fanfic writing hiatus. You can read this without reading that and have no trouble, but they are companion pieces. Enjoy!

It was no surprise that no one had made cleaning up the music room a priority. When picking through the rubble of their old lives, it was easier to focus on what was useful now. What would secure the building and give them places to sleep, and enable their atonement. 

The research was easier to sift through, easier to work with. They had been fragmented, backbiting, mistrustful in those moments, especially as the years had passed. There were few happy memories associated with their old research, and more shame than a human ought to be able to live with. But compared to the guilt his happy memories evoked, that shame was nothing. If reading their old research brought the taste of Ansem’s favorite ice cream to his tongue, then entering the music room brought his smell, the touch of his hand on Ienzo’s head, the memory of his smile.

The old man had wanted him to be well rounded, not just a little robot, able to spit out equations on command and nothing else. The piano, and the lessons, had been a gift to ensure it. And for a while, when he couldn’t force words past his lips from the sheer horror of what he’d seen, his fumbling attempts on the piano had been the clearest way he’d expressed himself.

In many ways, being raised by a bunch of researchers had been less than ideal. Particularly those researchers. There had been a time when Even had seen him as little more than a convenient test subject, until his intellect had asserted itself and threatened the much older man. But Ansem had tried, giving him what time he could. Listening patiently as he’d stumbled over the keys.

It had been safe in the music room. And then they had shattered safety forever.

Somehow, after all that, his master had forgiven him, and they were all working to make up for their mistakes. It should be easier to step into a room he’d once loved, and see it covered in broken glass and upturned furniture. But that was part of having a heart. Even if he was allowed to be here again, it was only natural for his heart to ache. The memories here had been defiled.

Yet the piano sat in the middle of it all, largely undisturbed despite the years and various calamities that had befallen Radiant Garden. The legs hadn’t broken, and nothing had fallen on the instrument. Considering the state of everything else, that seemed almost miraculous.

Fingers shaking, Ienzo lifted the lid and brushed his fingers over the keys. It would be out of tune, and that was if nothing had chewed through the wires. But his heart pounded in his chest, beating a painful rhythm against his ribs, begging him to depress the keys. To play this piano, instead of the cheap, battered one he’d smuggled into Castle Oblivion and used his illusions to hide.

“So that’s what’s back here.”

A voice- Demyx’s he realized after the initial shock- sounded from the open doorway, and Ienzo yanked his fingers from the keys as if burned. He turned to face him more slowly, trying to shake free of his almost giddy nerves.

This too was something he had to face from his time as a Nobody. He hadn’t just manipulated and killed, enabling a terrible agenda. He’d also (in a moment of weakness? Panic? Desperation? He shouldn’t have been able to feel any of those things,) kissed Demyx. And he still didn’t know what, if anything, to do about that.

He could precondition bodies for people without them in an attempt to make up for the terrible things he had done. But dealing with people was harder with a heart. He cared what they thought of him, and he had less of an idea how to handle that. Those were the side effects of being raised by old men, becoming a Nobody as a teenager, and having all of those terrible hormones come back with his heart.

Worse, Demyx’s eyes were sea foam green again, proof of recompletion. He could hurt this Demyx with his stupid floundering.

Demyx nodded at the piano. “It still work?”

Ienzo started. He’d been silent too long, his worries trapping any sort of normal greeting in his throat. This was the worse part of being whole again, he couldn’t help but think. Demyx flustered him, reminded him that normal interaction with anyone close to his own age had been practically nonexistent. Sora and the Twilight Town kids had been on the other side of a phone, and none of them had met him as a Nobody. Demyx was well aware of the terrible things he’d done, or at least could be, if he paid attention to things like that.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, summoning some of Zexion’s calm. “I was about to try it.”

“Oh,” Demyx scratched the back of his head. “Should I go?”

Ienzo almost laughed. Demyx, who had portalled into his lab and dropped a body at his feet like a dog with a dead squirrel, was being considerate. But of course he was. Music was probably the only thing he really cared about. It was what had brought them together, in their strange way.

Which was probably why he said, “Stay, if you want. But even if it does work, it hasn’t been tuned in a decade. And I wouldn’t know who to call to fix it.” He meant it as a warning, one musician to another, but it sounded like an excuse. A flimsy way of avoiding baring his heart, and the feelings that always came through when he played.

But whether Demyx saw through this or not, he only shrugged. “If you don’t play that song you always played before, I won’t know the difference.”

It was a blatant lie if he’d ever heard one. But the keys called, and his fingers itched to traverse them. Maybe he didn’t deserve to play again. Then again, when had any of them gotten what they deserved?

He began tentatively, a finger depressing a single key. The note vibrated through the room, sour and discordant. Not unlike trying to reconcile the sins he’d committed both before and after losing his heart.

The second note was no better. Neither was the third. But his fingers found a melody, tracing the notes of one of the first songs he’d ever learned to play. He didn’t stop when the song was over, but transitioned into another, feeling out a song that had been popular in Radiant Garden before… Well, before. He’d been teaching himself to play it by ear during quieter moments.

Strange how it all came back as if no time had passed.

He’d avoiding playing these kinds of songs in the castle, avoided the memories that came with them. Instead, he’d taught himself something new, based in feelings he’d been unable to understand. Because if it was just going to be an imitation, better to imitate someone else than himself.

He was breathing hard when he stopped, but his heart felt lighter. Like it had as a child, when he couldn’t speak. As if he’d finally opened the faucet damming his emotions.

There were drops of water on the keys.

Lifting his hand, Ienzo found that his face was wet as well.

And Demyx was still there, watching him with undisguised amazement. As if he’d never heard anything so wonderful, out of tune piano and all.

“You were right,” he said after a moment. “It is different when you have a heart.”

The words were so serious. So totally unexpected from someone like Demyx, that Ienzo couldn’t help but smile. A real smile, nothing like the smirk he’d favored as a Nobody.

“Would you like to play a duet? Though it might be hard to harmonize with something in this shape.”

Demyx’s sitar appeared before he even finished asking, blond head bent over the strings.

“I just have to make sure it’s as out of tune as the piano,” was Demyx’s joking reply.

Their duet would sound terrible to anyone listening. Sharp and discordant, echoing against the stone walls. But for Ienzo, it was the sound of forgiveness. Of moving on and finding his place in a world that he had no right to.

He didn’t need an answer today about what to do about Demyx, or what the rest of his life would look like. He had a home, and a family, and a way to make amends.

He had his piano, and maybe one day, they would both be in tune again.


End file.
